The Bias Against Orange Quarterbacks

Nassib May Join Rare Group: NFL QBs From Syracuse

ENLARGE

Ryan Nassib threw for 130 yards and two touchdowns against West Virginia during the Pinstripe Bowl at a snowy Yankee Stadium on Dec. 29.
Zuma Press

By

Jonathan Clegg

Jan. 25, 2013 9:15 p.m. ET

MOBILE, Ala.—Like any quarterback here at the Senior Bowl, the annual showcase for the country's top college seniors, Ryan Nassib is faced with some serious obstacles as he tries to enhance his standing among NFL scouts and executives.

In just a few days, he's been asked to absorb a new playbook in an unfamiliar language while developing chemistry with a bunch of receivers he's never thrown to before. Come Saturday's game (4 p.m. ET, NFL Network), he'll be expected to pilot the offense like a seasoned pro.

But in the eyes of the NFL, Nassib has one additional obstacle to overcome: He played his college football at Syracuse.

The Orange has sent 230 players to the NFL, making it the 25th-most productive school in the country for producing professional players. But the total number of Syracuse quarterbacks who have graduated to the league stands at just three.

In other words, Syracuse isn't exactly known as a quarterback factory.

"I can't explain it," Nassib said after practice here Thursday. "We've had some great quarterbacks in the past, but the NFL is a crazy business. Hopefully I can break the streak."

Even before Nassib drew positive reviews from coaches and front-office personnel this week, the 6-foot-2 senior was a good bet to become the fourth Syracuse quarterback ever to play on Sundays.

A three-year starter, Nassib led the Orange to their only two winning seasons (2010 and 2012) in more than a decade, and last season, he broke the school's single-season record for passing yards, completions, touchdown passes and total offense.

But the fact that Nassib left campus with almost every major passing record may offer an insight into why so few NFL quarterbacks have passed through Syracuse.

The Orange have never been too fond of the passing game. Even as other major colleges operated pro-style offenses and pass-happy attacks that bred NFL passers, former Syracuse coach Dick MacPherson says the main responsibility for Syracuse quarterbacks was to hand off the ball and get out of the way.

"In my day, we were all about the running back," said MacPherson, who coached the Orange to an undefeated season in 1987. "Going back down the years, you think of Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little. At Syracuse, the running back was the guy who made the offense go."

Even when the Orange had a quarterback with the skills to play in the NFL, the team's run-first offense has sometimes scared away NFL teams. Don McPherson and Marvin Graves both had stellar careers for Syracuse and were later invited to attend the Senior Bowl. But both were widely viewed as running quarterbacks rather than dropback passers and they were consequently ignored by NFL teams.

Donovan McNabb, the last Syracuse quarterback to enter the league, was a first-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999, but said he had to fight the perception from scouts that he was unprepared to operate an NFL offense.

"The scouts are so embedded in pro-style offenses that they never look at the actual skill level of the players," said McNabb, an NFL Network analyst. "For schools that haven't produced a lot of NFL quarterbacks, they fall into a category where scouts think you're just another guy from Syracuse. But look at USC. There's been a lot of high draft picks out of USC, but there hasn't been many successful quarterbacks."

But as scouts and coaches pick through the six senior quarterbacks on show here, there are signs that Nassib may escape the perception problem that has long plagued Syracuse passers.

For starters, MacPherson says the success enjoyed by McNabb, who passed for more than 37,000 yards during a 13-year pro career, has convinced NFL executives that Syracuse isn't solely a breeding ground for runners. "Donovan was a great player in the NFL, he's a household name, and now Ryan is following that lead," he said.

Then there's the fact that Nassib played for four years under Doug Marrone, who has an NFL background and was named the new coach of the Buffalo Bills this month.

Finally, the fact that Nassib operated a hurry-up offense that emphasized his mobility with some read-option plays is no longer enough to scare away NFL teams.

Syracuse's use of the read-option (a play in which the quarterback can hand off the ball or keep it and run himself) and the hurry-up offense would once have been derided as a gimmick and viewed as a warning flag in the draft process. But nowadays, nearly every NFL team uses some elements of the no-huddle, while the read-option emerged as the trendiest tactic across the league last season.

"You're seeing teams embrace a wider range at quarterback," said McNabb. "Before they were looking for a 6-foot-5, 225-pound guy who could sit in the pocket and sling it. Now scouts are just looking for someone who can make explosive plays."

Aside from the doubts about his alma mater, NFL scouts and analysts say the biggest questions about Nassib concern his accuracy on deep passes. Early in the week here, Nassib was off-target with a couple of long pass attempts and on one occasion, underthrew his receiver, allowing a cornerback to break up the pass.

"That's always been my thing for the last couple of years," Nassib said. "It's just something I need to work on and it's a little 'feel' thing with receivers."

But as the week wore on, Nassib's accuracy slowly began to turn heads and some say he could now be drafted in the first round. In Thursday's practice, Nassib earned praise from the Oakland Raiders coaches overseeing the session after hitting Texas receiver Marquise Goodwin in stride for a 30-yard touchdown.

"Everyday he's gotten better," said Al Saunders, the Raiders senior offensive assistant. "And that's what you look for, especially in a quarterback. He certainly has a future in the NFL ahead of him."

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